John 14:6

“A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely…” Psalm 68:5-6

Pastor Tom from the People’s City Mission will often be heard to say, “The Lord Jesus was born to a homeless family.” His earthly parents submitted to a foreign dictator’s imposed edict and departed their residence in Nazareth to journey to a sleepy village south of Jerusalem. Though it was the community of their extended family (“…for Joseph was of the house and lineage of David.”), they arrived to find that no one, not even one household, was able or willing to make a small area of their home available for the young mother soon to give birth to her first child. Not even one!

After the miraculous and successful delivery of their “son” the threat of death required that this yet homeless family become “refugees” in a foreign land. With the massacre of the innocents saturating the earth with infant blood, Joseph hastens his family out of their homeland and across the hazardous roads to Egypt. With nothing for financial support except the lavish gifts of foreign sages (gold, frankincense, and myrrh), this refuge family finds shelter a long, long way from home and loved ones. When the threat of death had passed, Joseph packed up his young bride, his toddler son, and returned the family some 350-plus miles to his hometown, Nazareth. There he provided a home for Mary, Jesus, and the additional children with whom their household was soon blessed.

Yet, though his earthly father labored faithfully to provide all that was physically needed, the young Jesus was still “homeless.” When his 12th birthday had arrived, He seized the opportunity to engage the learned elders of the nation in deep discussions regarding the meaning and application of Old Testament truth. The days passed far too quickly and soon his parents were headed the 70-some miles home. Traveling as they were with neighbors and friends from the Galilee region, it was evening before his parents realized that they had left him behind. In a panic they returned to the crowded city, desperately seeking their son. Yet when they found him in the Temple courts deep in dialogue with the teachers, His response to His mother was, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”

His manger bed was a place to rest, but the stable of His birth was not His home. The shelter for refugees in the land of Egypt was a place of temporary security during the days of infant slaughter, but the hut in which He slept was not His home. Back in Nazareth, His meals were provided, His bed was secure under the cottage roof, and His schooling was effective as He grew. But the comfort of His Nazareth address was not His home.

With an eye toward the eternal purpose and a clear understanding of the journey to the cross and the shelter of the tomb, the Homeless Savior declared to His loyal friends, “I go to prepare a place for you!” John 14 The homeless baby of Bethlehem, that refugee child in Egypt is the Father of the fatherless…the judge who defends the widow. He is the God who personally “makes a home for the lonely!”

The Homeless Savior welcomes YOU home for Christmas!

See you Sunday, Church!
Pastor Tom